Project Overview
To evaluate and cost U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) investments in early literacy and access to education in conflict settings in the LAC region. Under this project, Mathematica is conducting seven evaluations across five countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.
LAC Reads is designed to help ministries of education and other education stakeholders improve early literacy programs in the LAC region by increasing the availability of, demand for, and capacity to use evidence-based, cost-effective practices.
- Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE, Peru)
- Espirálica (Honduras)
- DMC (Guatemala)
- Fundación Internacional para el Desafío Económico Global (FIDEG, Nicaragua)
U.S. Agency for International Development
Latin America and the Caribbean Reads (LAC Reads)—an initiative funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—is working to improve both literacy and access to education in conflict areas, especially among groups of disadvantaged children and youth in conflict areas. Mathematica is leading one component of the LAC Reads initiative, the LAC Reading and Education Evaluation Services project. Under this project, Mathematica is conducting impact evaluations of four reading interventions in Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and Nicaragua, and three non-experimental studies including a performance evaluation of workforce programs for at-risk youth in El Salvador, an evidence review on the effects of education on violence, crime and related outcomes, and annual reports tracking of workforce development progress in Central America.
Through the interventions we tested, we have expanded the evidence base on which in-school and community-level approaches work best and for whom, to improve early grade reading and education outcomes in the LAC region. As we continue to work with USAID to uncover insights from LAC Reads, we began dissemination efforts to share this expanded education evidence base with researchers, policymakers, educators, and people around the world, so that the evidence can be used to better support early learners, youth, their schools, and their communities.
The LAC READS project includes 7 evaluations in 5 countries:

Evidence & Insights From This Project

Lessons Learned and Methodological Insights from LAC Reads to Improve Education Evaluations
Launched in 2012, LAC Reads was an ambitious initiative led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and a host of partners to generate and use evidence about what works to address the early literacy crisis across much of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
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